A nest with 94 caretta caretta eggs (Caretta caretta) discovered this week in the coastal zone of the Ebro Delta Natural Park is the first breeding location for this species located in Catalonia this year. In 2021, five nests of this species were observed and protected on the Catalan coast, but last year, for unknown reasons, no clutches of this marine species appeared.
“Following the action protocol in these cases, a total of 16 eggs from this nest have been transferred to the facilities of the Center for the Recovery of Marine Animals (CRAM) to ensure their viability and the rest have been left in the nest”, has explained by the Climate Action department in an informative note.
The downpours of the last few days and the short distance from the nest to the coastline have advised this action. Technicians from the Natural Park have participated in the operation, as well as members of the Corps of Rural Agents, the BETA Technological Center of the University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia and the CRAM.
The breeding season for the skin turtle starts at the beginning of June and lasts until the end of October. Mothers usually nest between mid-June and late July, and young begin to emerge from early August to mid-to-late October. The nesting of skinned turtles in the western Mediterranean began about 10-15 years ago, indicating a change in behavior probably motivated by climate change. Historically, there had been the presence of feeding juveniles and subadults, but until then no females had come to reproduce.
To guarantee the viability of the breeding of this species, the Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda coordinates the operations to protect these nests, in which the BETA Center of the UVic-UCC, the CRAM, the Cuerpo de Rural Agent, the Nature Conservation Network, the Faculty of Biology of the University of Barcelona, ??Forestal Catalana and the Barcelona Zoo.
The Acció Climàtica department highlights that this year improvements have been introduced in the protocol that is followed when a nest is located to make it more efficient and improve decision-making (for example, if it is necessary to move the nest or save some eggs to incubate them in captivity ).
Improvements have also been introduced in other aspects related to the taking of scientific and veterinary samples or the marking of specimens, among others. Likewise, in areas such as the Ebro delta, where the location of these sea turtles is increasingly common, their presence must be taken into account when designing and executing actions to protect the coastline.
The Generalitat recalls that, in the event that any person finds signs of nesting (whether it is a female in the sand, traces or hatchlings), “it is important to give immediate notice to the emergency telephone number 112 and not disturb, touch or take flash photographs of the animals nor step on the tracks”. In this sense, it should be remembered that the face turtle is a protected species, declared a threatened species in 2022, in the Vulnerable category.
